Equine Passion Part II

Article by Robin Z. Waldman. Originally published in Generations – 2004: Recreation, Sports & Leisure. This particular issue of Generations proved wildly popular and is no longer available for purchase.

Part II: Pulling Ahead
Missed part 1? Start here.

Ben bought his first horses as gifts for Zelda on Valentine’s Day, 1951. He had previously tried to buy her gifts of perfume or jewelry, but Zelda always returned them. “I don’t need it; I don’t want it,” she would say. So in later years Ben was fond of recalling that the two horses, Aunt Jane and War Age, were gifts that Zelda could not return, the first of his gifts she ever kept. A tradition was begun that year – all the horses that Ben and Zelda ever owned were kept n Zelda’s name. In addition, all of Ben and Zelda’s horses, and their jockeys, wore purple-and-gold racing silks, chosen by Zelda because they were the colors of the United Order of the True Sisters, a philanthropic organization of which she had been president.

Ben and Zelda never owned a stable of their own, though they were at one point considered the best breeders in the state. When not training or racing, War Age and Aunt Jane boarded at Halycon Farm on Greenspring Avenue (owned by Fred Colwill), where the Cohens would later keep many of their horses. Hoses in training stayed in barns at the racetrack or wherever the trainer worked. They would return to the farm to be broken, to rest, or to breed. Aunt Jane was never very successful, but War Age won several allowance and stakes races for the Cohens. While they were both enthusiastic horse racers, Ben in particular was equally attentive to his horse breeding. At all times Ben kept a list with him of the horses he was breeding and would often pull it out for consultation. Ben and Zelda’s horse breeding eventually led to their greatest racing triumph: Hail to All, the Cohen’s most successful racehorse, was also one that they had bred.

In 1952 it seemed only natural that Ben and Herman Cohen purchase Pimlico as their next big business venture. Over the years the Cohen brothers ran many businesses, and in their usual fashion of alternating positions from one company they bought or created to the next, Herman became Pimlico’s president and Ben became the track’s secretary-treasurer.[1] Zelda, ever involved in her husband’s enterprises, set about refurbishing the run-down Old Clubhouse. The Victorian landmark, with its wide, sweeping staircase, became the focal point for a restoration that aimed to create a lively, appealing atmosphere for Pimlico patrons. Zelda acquired period flocked wallpaper for the walls, installed a red carpet up the stairs and adorned the side porch with white wicker furniture and red-and-white-striped wallpaper. Members would sit either on the porch to eat or at the inside dining rooms. In a time before televisions graced every dining table, club members would dine on an elegant lunch before the races and spend the entire afternoon in the clubhouse.

As racing gained popularity in the United States the Cohens added a number of events to the Preakness Stakes to create what would become known as Preakness Week. The Preakness Festival was started, and a press party was added, held the Thursday before the race and open to out-of-town press, owners, trainers, and jockeys. The Cohens hosted the party each year and Zelda was known for the attention she gave to the subtle details of the annual affair.

While attending to the needs of Pimlico, Ben never neglected the breeding and racing of his own horses. On May 22, 1962 Hail to All was foaled at Ocala Stud in Florida. At first, Hail to All did not seem to have much promise in racing. At birth his left hind leg was so crooked that he was unable to put all four feet on the ground at once. Family legend tells that the farm manager Joe O’Farrell looked around for an implement he could use to brace the leg – and straightened it with a sweat scraper. With Ben’s close observation and encouragement, O’Farrell had Hail to All walking by the time he was three weeks old. Hail to All would become the Cohens’ winningest horse, bringing in $$494,150 in total earnings over the course of his career, though when he raced he always wore a patch to cover the unusual curvature of his leg.[2]

Hail to All’s most exciting season for the Cohens was in 1965, when, wearing the purple and gold silks Zelda had selected years earlier, he won both the Jersey Derby and the Belmont Stakes within a single week. It was a remarkable accomplishment for both the horse and his owners. A double-page spread in the next week’s issue of Sports Illustrated proclaimed “Hail to Zelda! Hail to Ben!,” while Blood Horse ran a headline on its front cover that said “Colt Born a Cripple has Stamina, Courage to Win Classic by Neck.”[3]

The season had been one of great anticipation for Hail to All’s owners. In February he started the campaign by winning the Hibiscus Stakes at Hialeah Racetrack in Florida. As spring progressed Hail to All did well in several events, but finished only fifth in the Kentucky Derby. The next event was the Preakness, and Ben worried about a conflict of interest. He was concerned about a close race where the stewards would need to decide the winner, and how fans might react if Ben’s horse was called the winner at his own racetrack. He debated withdrawing Hail to All from the race. “Certainly, I want to run in the Preakness, but under the circumstances, maybe we should settle for the Jersey Derby.”[4]  As it turned out, Hail to All did run in the Preakness, but placed third. When the day of the Jersey Derby arrived, Hail to All was ready. The Derby was run on May 31, 1965 at Garden State Park and Hail to All was the clear winner.

Five days later, on Saturday, June 5, 1965, Ben commented to Zelda before the beginning of the Belmont: “I would have liked to have won the [Kentucky] Derby or the Preakness, but everybody knows the Belmont Stakes is the prestige race to win from a breeder’s standpoint. It is the big one. I’d love to settle matters by winning the Belmont.”[5] Hail to All did win that day, and he became the first horse ever to win two races of $100,000-added or more in a six-day period.[6] The following season Hail to All retired from racing to stand at stud in Virginia. He sired three seasons of foals before dying in an accident in 1972.[7]

Continue to Part III: Into the Home Stretch

[1] Lucy Acton, “The Men who Run the Preakness,” Baltimore Magazine, May 1973, p. 22. See also Siegel, “Pimlico’s Cohen Brothers,” p. 36.

[2] For numerous accounts of Hail to All’s story and accomplishments, see Scrapbook of Ben and Zelda Cohen (JMM 2003.044).

[3] Whitney Tower, “Hail to Zelda! Hail to Ben!,” Sports Illustrated, June 14, 1965, pp. 28-29, and Kent Hollingsworth, “Colt Born a Cripple has Stamina, Courage to Win Classic by Neck,” The Blood Horse, June 12, 1965, front cover.

[4] “At the Races: Hail to All, His Owner on the Spot,” unattributed, from Cohen Scrapbook, p. 33.

[5] Tower, “Hail to Zelda!,” p. 29.

[6] Frank Talmadge Phelps, “Background of the Winner,” The Thoroughbred Record, June 12, 1965, p. 1519.

[7] “Hail to All Dead,” Cohen Scrapbook, p. 13.